Sabres re-sign Jeff Skinner to 8-year, $72 million contract

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Sabres re-sign Jeff Skinner to 8-year, $72 million contract

2019-06-08 10:33 Last Updated At：10:40

The Buffalo Sabres have re-signed leading scorer Jeff Skinner to an eight year, $72 million contract in addressing one their most pressing offseason needs.

Skinner becomes the team's second-highest paid player behind captain Jack Eichel in a deal reached Friday night, and three weeks before the forward was eligible to become an unrestricted free agent. The ninth-year player, who has now topped 30 goals four times, had been considered a key piece for a rebuilding team since Buffalo acquired him in a trade with Carolina in August.

The just-turned 27-year-old led Buffalo with a career-best 40 goals and finished third on the team with 63 points in 82 games.

Negotiations began in January, with Skinner expressing a desire to stay in Buffalo. Aside from his production and bond he developed with Eichel, Skinner also enjoyed playing closer to his hometown of Toronto, about a two-hour drive from Buffalo.

Re-signing Skinner was general manager Jason Botterill's next priority after filling the team's coaching vacancy by hiring Ralph Krueger three weeks ago.

A failure to re-sign Skinner would have been considered a significant setback for a franchise in the midst of a team-worst eight-year playoff drought — the NHL's longest active streak — and at a time the Sabres are set to celebrate their 50th season.

Buffalo is coming off a season in which it finished 27th overall and joined the 2016-17 Philadelphia Flyers in becoming the second of 50 NHL teams to miss the playoffs in the same season they won at least 10 straight games.

The Sabres followed their 10-game winning streak in November by closing the season winning 16 of their final 57 games, which led to coach Phil Housley's firing two years into his tenure.

The only downside during Skinner's career is the NHL's 2011 rookie of the year and two-time all-star selection has yet to appear in the playoffs since the Hurricanes selected him with the seventh pick in the 2010 draft.

Skinner's new contract means the Sabres have committed a combined $152 million to two forward after Eichel's eight-year, $80 million contract kicked in last year. Even with Skinner's addition, Buffalo is currently projected to have $22 million still available to spend this offseason under a salary cap expected to rise to $83 million.

The Sabres are expected to continue being active in free agency and the trade market this offseason in a bid to address a lack of secondary scoring. Skinner, Eichel and forward Sam Reinhart accounted for 90 of Buffalo's 226 goals last season.

Though Skinner became Buffalo's first player to score 40 goals since Thomas Vanek in 2008-09, his production tailed off over the final six weeks of the season. He went 13 games without a goal and scored just four times in his final 25 games.

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US women's hockey team beats Canada 4-1 in Edmonton to sweep Rivalry Series

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Hilary Knight scored twice in the third period and the U.S. women's hockey team beat Canada 4-1 on Saturday night to sweep the four-game Rivalry Series.

The game was the last between the teams before they meet in a preliminary-round game in the Olympics on Feb. 10 in Milan.

“We expected them to come out swinging and were able to weather the storm,” U.S. coach John Wroblewski said. “This was a strong game and gives us a lot to think about as we head into Milan.”

Knight is retiring from international hockey after the Olympics. The 36-year-old U.S. caprtain scored the lone goal in the first Rivalry Series game between the countries back on Feb. 12, 2019.

“It’s special to be able to represent your country and to play against an awesome powerhouse of a hockey team as well,” Knight said. “We’re on the fortunate side of this year’s (series) and that felt pretty good.”

Defenders Caroline Harvey and Laila Edwards also scored and Taylor Heise had two assists for the Americans. Aerin Frankel made 23 saves.

The Americans outscored the Canadians 24-7 in the series, also winning 4-1 in Cleveland on Nov. 6, 6-1 in Buffalo, New York, on Nov. 8 and 10-4 in Edmonton on Wednesday night.

“Nothing awesome comes easy,” Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin said. “We know there’s work to be done. I don’t think we can take those four games and get down on ourselves.”

Brianne Jenner scored for Canada. Ann-Renee Desbiens stopped 28 shots.

Harvey opened the scoring at 5:13 of the second period. Jenner tied it a minute later, and Edwards put the Americans ahead to stay at 7:29 of the period.

In the third, Knight scored with 8:31 remaining and 1:37 left, the second into an empty net.

AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey